1. Background
This invention relates to vehicle-mounted tool chests and, more specifically but not by way of limitation, to a swing-out tool chest mounted in a pickup, van, utility truck, or other vehicle. For convenience, the invention is illustrated in conjunction with a pickup. It will be understood by one skilled in the art, however, that the swing-out tool chest invention is suitable for mounting at the rear of a van, at the rear of a sport utility vehicle (SUV), or on the frame of a utility truck. The swing-out tool chest of the present invention combines the organizational benefits normally associated with a machinist's tool chest (sometimes also referred to herein, in the alternative, as a machinist's tool box) with the mobility of a pickup or other utility vehicle. This invention also discloses a method for converting a commercially available locking tool chest to a swing-out tool chest.
2. Discussion
Tool chests have evolved along functional lines. Records show a machinist's tool chest belonged to Charles Potter, who worked at the Taunton Locomotive Works in Taunton, Mass. Potter started there as an apprentice in 1863, at the age of eighteen, and stayed as a machinist and later a foreman until the plant closed in 1902. Like other master craftsmen at large metalworking factories, Potter probably contracted with the management to produce subassemblies of a given quality at a specific price. The company provided machinery and materials and paid the wages of the men who worked for Potter, but Potter took responsibility for profit or loss on the contract. The drawers and compartments of a machinist's tool chest organized the machinist's precision tools and protected them from damage. A lock kept the tools from being “borrowed.” The tool chest also symbolized the autonomy once enjoyed by skilled workers. Management may have controlled the physical workplace, but factory workers still retained some sense of independence through their skill and ownership of tools.
Today, machinist's tool chests are available with wheels and without wheels. Some tool chests include drop-front panels of double-wall construction for added rigidity and tool security. Integral side panel/slide construction evenly distributes and transfers drawer loads to the chest bottom panel. Thick, wool felt drawer liners are available to help keep tools clean and protect against corrosion. Typically, chests come with cylinder lock and milled key changes to help protect contents. Tool chest lid hinges are sometimes equipped with rust-resistant, stainless-steel pins which are staked to prevent punch-out and lid removal. Slide limit stops prevent drawers from extending beyond the tool chest frame. Tool chests come in various finishes.
In today's industrial environments, maintenance personnel have the same need for organized tools as the machinists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A modern mobile tool box is, essentially, a machinist's tool chest mounted on industrial-grade casters. Like the machinists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, twenty-first century maintenance personnel often provide both their tools and the mobile tool chest in which their tools are stored.
Both specialized suppliers and retail chains offer tool chests on rollers. Rolling tool chests may have 10 or more drawers and feature a smooth carriage slide system with ball bearing rollers. Drawer capacities of up to 400 pounds per drawer are available, and some industrial casters are rated at 850 pounds per wheel or more. Most rolling tool chests feature a locking system.
While the benefits of a machinist's tool chest have been incorporated into the modern maintenance tool cabinet and its organization, those benefits have not been readily available to personnel who work in the field. Heavy equipment used for earth moving, dredging, and the like requires on-site maintenance and repairs. In some cases, full-time maintenance personnel travel from site to site to perform maintenance and repairs as needed. In many cases, however, the operators themselves perform maintenance and repairs to the equipment. Custom-built maintenance vehicles, which are expensive, may be appropriate for full-time maintenance personnel, but field operators also use specialized, high-quality tools.
Pickup trucks are known for their use as work vehicles. The bed of a pickup truck is generally used to haul tools or items one would not be able to haul in a car. Tool boxes mounted in the bed of the truck provide a secure area to store commonly used items. These tool boxes are generally mounted immediately behind the cab and span the width of the pickup bed. Contents of a behind-the-cab tool box are often difficult to remove because of the location, and the behind-the-cab tool box takes up room in the pickup bed.
The behind-the-cab tool box is especially problematic for heavy equipment operators and service personnel who normally adjust or repair heavy equipment on site. Rainy conditions can make climbing into the pickup bed to gain access to tools stored in the behind-the-cab tool box unsafe and difficult for operators and service personnel. Further, the tools stored are frequently disorganized so the operator or service person must sort through a pile of tools to find the desired tool. Like the machinists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and like the industrial maintenance man of the twenty-first century, today's heavy equipment operators frequently are responsible for providing and securing the tools needed to maintain the heavy equipment they operate.
Equipment operators and maintenance personnel need a tool chest which provides multiple drawers for organization of tools. The multi-drawer tool chest should be easily accessible, but it should also provide security for tools which are often expensive. When not in use, the tool chest should be capable of storage in a convenient location so as not to interfere with use of the pickup bed for transporting small equipment.